BWW Recap: BOARDWALK EMPIRE: Flashbacks, Chain Gangs, and Cuba, Oh My!

Okay so here we are! Episode one of the final season of BOARDWALK EMPIRE entitled "Golden Days for Boys and Girls"!

It kicked off in an interesting and beautifully visual fashion as we are met with an opening shot of boys diving for coins underwater. The cinematography in that scene, and in the entire episode, is notably gorgeous.

Voicing over this stunning imagery is a poem read aloud by a female voice; "Be honest and true, boys! /Whatever you do, boys /Let this be your motto through life." This poem bookends the episode as it's featured during the flashbacks (yes flashbacks!) of young Nucky Thompson throughout the episode, bringing the series truly full circle.

Speaking of the flashbacks, there are quite a lot of them. They show up at almost every other scene in the episode. One thing's for certain is that they are beautifully shot and colorized. We get to see young Nucky back in Atlantic City in 1884 and the Commodore (played wonderfully by Tony-nominee John Ellison Conlee, who eerily reminds me of Dabney Coleman in the episode) in his prime. All the stories that we've heard about this time in our main character's life are shown to us visually: his poor background, his sick sister Susan, his younger brother Eli, his loving, kind and caring mother, and his abusive fisherman father. It almost seems unnecessary to show, as we've heard so much about all of this from Nucky throughout the years, however, the most interesting part of these flashbacks is seeing the kind of boy Nucky was. As the poem encourages, Nucky holds truth and honesty as the two best virtues in life, and he soon learns from the Commodore that in Atlantic City, that isn't the case.

We then jump ahead, a big jump to 1931, and we find Nucky and Sally in Havana, Cuba where Nucky is setting up a deal with Senator Wendell Lloyd to push the annulment of the Volstead Act. It's an incredible parallel to begin the final season with, as we started the first season just as the Volstead Act was enforced. Now here we are on the brink of the end of said Actm and as the senator says, "The whole damn country could use a drink."

Nucky wants to turn his business legal when the annulment comes through so that he can "get there first," and sell to the "thirstiest country on earth," which in my calculations, would be a pretty great spot to be in.

Sally then sets the Senator up with a young attractive girl. The Senator, and mostly everyone else in the room, seems to be having the best time of his life, while Nucky seems as if he wants to murder someone.

Also notable to point out- Nucky attempts, and sort of fails, at speaking some Spanish.

Nucky also has a new bodyguard who is the silent type, but as we find out later in the episode, can certainly handle himself in a fight.

I have to take just a minute here to appreciate how exquisite the Cuban shots are. The warm tones and incredible scenery are breathtaking.

We also hear them discussing the economy as we head towards the Great Depression and clearly, America is not the thriving land of wealth and opportunity we knew it to be in previous seasons.

Then we find fan favorite, our beloved Chalky White. He's a part of a chain gang that is forced to work as the white men in charge call them "Stripies" and push them around. The only knowledge we have of why Chalky ended up there so far is that he "got caught." It's horrific to see Chalky in this state, in chains, bent and broken. Also, one of his fellow chain gang prisoners incessantly sings during everything they do.

This episode hops around quite a lot. Back in Cuba; Sally speaks Spanish far better than Nucky, and we also run into a familiar face there: Meyer Lansky. The two start talking after a protest breaks out in the street, and we hear that they last saw each other at A.R.'s (Arnold Rothstein's) funeral. I really hope that isn't the only nod we're getting about the departure of one of BOARDWALK fan's most beloved characters, because he deserves a lot more than that with his historically accurate, between seasons, death. Meyer also tells Nucky that he no longer speaks to Charlie Luciano (shocker, as the two used to be the best of pals!) and that he's there with his "wife" on vacation.

Later of course we find out that's not true, as his "wife" speaks mostly Spanish, and uses her broken English to propostion Nucky later on. Clearly Lansky lied, but about what? We aren't too sure yet, but we are lead to believe that he has a hand in the assassination attempt on Nucky that takes place just a few minutes late in the episode. We see a man run at Nucky with a machete which would have killed him, had it not been for his new bodyguard and an adorably smart child. His bodyguard, by the way, cut the mans ear off and kept it in his pocket! All in a days trip to Cuba; nothing to see here. Just a man with a machete who's ear was just cut off. I feel sorry for those patrons and vactionees who had to wintess that!

Charlie "Lucky" Luciano is back and means business. In a GODFATHER-esque scene, we see Charlie betray his old boss Joe Masseria in favor of a new boss (I know, it doesn't seem very sensible) Salvatore Maranzano. It's one of the more shocking scenes in the episode, as Charlie excuses himself to the bathroom during a meal with Masseria. While he's in there, two hit men walk in and kill Masseria. We find him dead on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Then we see Charlie's initiation into the Maranzano clan, where they perform some sort of blood brother ritual; they slit their palms and shake hands with each other, thus infecting the entire gang with hepatitis (okay just kidding about the hepatitus, but they did all shake hands with bloody palms!).

Back in the chain gang, Chalky busts a shoe lace, Singing Chain Gang Member keeps singing....oh and the whole chain gang decides to fight back and break free! Chalky shoots the boss of the chain gang in the face with his own rifle, grabs the keys from him and takes off on a run. Soon, the chain gang singer catches up with him and tackles him to the ground pointing a gun at his face, angrily asking how telephones work to which Chalky confused, replies "Huh?" The two make some sort of agreement out of it though.

We also got to see Margaret in this episode, which I was very happy about; and with A.R.'s death occurring between seasons, I was wondering where we would find her. Apparently we find her still working at the same job, and we are greeted by her boss giving a speech about how he went to see a film and saw a Mickey Mouse cartoon. He talks about how inspiring Mickey was to perservere and escape from the island at the end of the cartoon on the back of a turtle... after which he proceeds to blow his brains out in front of the entire office! As the Depression Era comes forth, we see it having a clearly heavy effect on quite a lot of people.

Margaret is then called into the office by one of the higher ups, and asked about her life and what she did for her boss. She skirts around the illegal activities he partook in and then comes the real question. They want the key to his file cabinet. Margaret immediately lies and says she doesn't know where it is, knowing full well that the file on A.R. (A. Redstone) that is in there could put her in a lot of trouble. Margaret slyly attempts to steal the file, but fails to do so and is forced to hand over the key.

Then, towards the end of the episode, the end of our Nucky flashbacks show us the moment when Nucky begins to work for The Commodore, and we know how important and formative those years in his life will be in making him the person we know "today."

Notably absent from this episode were Gillian Darmody, Al Capone, Nelson Van Alden, grown up Eli Thompson and Valentin Narcisse. From the preview of next week however we can see that will change! In the trailer we see:

• A table of men questioning Nucky's competance in the liquor business.
• Al Capone extremely angry about money he is owed and Nelson Van Alden and Eli making sure that he gets it.
• Willie Thompson's new hopeful careet path: to put criminals in jail! Hm ironic considering his family lineage and his own past wrongdoings.
• Nucky's new bodyguard offering to kill whoever Nucky wants him to kill - I think I'm really going to like him!
• The Commodore coming over to the Thompson residence! It doesn't seem to go over to well with Ethan Thomspon!
• Gillian!
• A meeting between Charlie, Maranzano and Nucky. "You have nothing to fear from me Mr. Thomspon," he tells Nucky. "Who says I was afraid? " Nucky answers.

Overall this episode was a nice start to the season and an interesting way to set us up for the rest of this final season but the enormous amount of flashbacks weighed down the episode with a lot of information we already know, even though they were beautiful to look at!

Check back with BWW TV after each episode of BOARDWALK EMPIRE's final season, and let me know what you think in the comments below.